Rejoice and Be Glad!

Jesus Is Risen, He Is Truly Risen!

Happy Third Sunday of Easter! We see in our Gospel selection from St. Luke that the post-Resurrection Jesus comes to His Disciples. They could not believe their eyes. Is it truly our Lord? The Disciples had difficulty accepting the resurrection. It was too marvelous to believe! Jesus had to meet them where they were. We read in the Gospel,

And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them.

Luke 24:41-43

Jesus knew this action would be proof He was not a ghost.

With this proof, Jesus’ Disciples would give up everything to serve Him. For three hundred years, following Jesus could mean death.

The radical nature of the Resurrection must change our lives. We need Easter, We need Resurrection Sunday, because it reminds us how we are to live. There are so many messages in the world and they may take us off our Christian Life Path. Easter reminds us that we are a Resurrection People and that Love will be Victorious!

What Jesus said two thousand years ago, He is saying to us now,

“You are witnesses of these things.”

Luke 24:48

May we live as People of the Resurrection and witness to the world the Power of Love!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace

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Divine Mercy Matters!

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

There is an urgent need to live Divine Mercy in our lives. Our world needs to see it in how we treat ourselves and each other. We can change the trajectory of our lives and those we encounter. We can go from chaos to peace and lead others to peace too! We read in the Gospel of St. John,

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

John 20:21

As we close the high holy days of Easter, we are challenged by the words of the Risen Lord Jesus to be His presence in the world. God entered into our midst over 2000 years ago in the womb of Mary His Mother and as the world so desperately needed Him then, so do we need Him now. Humankind must always be challenged to live supernaturally!

We must live the Mercy that we say we believe in! People need to see that there is another way to live, the Mercy Way!

How we treat ourselves and others say volumes about what we really believe!

The world still has hope, and it begins with us!

We must ask ourselves honestly, are we living the fact that Jesus rose from the dead?

Are we living Divine Mercy?

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Let Us Follow Jesus!

Let Us Rise with Him!

Happy Palm Sunday!

Today we enter into the ending of our Lenten Fast, and the beginning of Holy Week! We enter into the culmination of the Incarnation! And we enter this time with great exuberance! We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the Kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!”

Mark 11:10

Let us be one with Jesus as He travels through this week of His Passion and Death!

If we stay with Jesus, though we will suffer because of the ever-present evil that is around us, though we may get misunderstood by those around us, we will experience the Victory in Christ!

The more we find time to walk with Jesus this week, the greater our blessings will be.

No matter what we are going through, remember that in Jesus we will find the Victory of peace, joy and love!

Have a blessed Palm Sunday and a blessed Holy Week!

Let us keep each other in prayer!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/a1d90db2

We Need Glorious Experiences!

The Cross Is Real and So Is the Resurrection!

As we celebrate the Second Sunday of Lent, we meditate on the Transfiguration. Let us look at Peter. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel:

And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Mark 9:5

Peter was having a glorious time and he wanted to hold on to the moment. He saw the Divine Nature of his Lord and Master, he also saw his heroes, Moses and Elijah. Everything made sense! Everything was beautiful!

Peter’s desire could not be fulfilled. Life does not work that way. He would have to come down from glory and experience the Passion, Cross, and Death of his Lord and Master, Jesus He would have to experience his personal failure in the denial of his relationship with the Savior, but he would also, along with John, the beloved disciple, experience the Empty Tomb! Jesus would destroy death!

May we look at Peter and see our road too. We will have glorious experiences with our Lord and Master. We will experience also terrible things in our life journey, and because we know our Lord is God, we will get through whatever we are experiencing because we know we have the Final Victory in the Lord Jesus.

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Come to Jesus and Be Healed!

We have reached the last Sunday before the Lenten Fast. Today in our Gospel section we meet Jesus our only hope. He is the one that can reconnect us to ourselves and to others.

We read in St. Mark’s Gospel:

And a leper came to him (Jesus) begging Him, and kneeling said to Him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will;be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.”

Mark 1:40-42.

The man seeking Jesus knew there was no other way in his world without the intervention of Jesus in his life. Jesus, in His part, came into this World to do exactly what this leper needed; to be a healer. Among many different reasons Jesus came to be with us, to be a healing presence in our lives.

As we conclude, for a while, these general Sunday topics, we leave with the knowledge that Jesus can and will heal our deepest concerns that keep us from living wholesome lives. Jesus can bring us to healing of what keeps us from Him and from one another.

Our requirement is to call on Jesus and to let Him take control!

Be healed!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

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Be St. Joseph Like!

As Advent 2023 comes to a close, we have St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus, the Husband of the Virgin Mary, as a role model. We see in the Gospel of St. Luke:

He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While he was there , the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:5-7.

The Christmas Story is so profound in its simplicity! We see St. Joseph providing for his young family the best that he could and the World received received her Savior!

Below is a little meditation that I hope will help us deal with struggles the way St. Joseph did so many years ago.

Have a blessed end of Advent 2023 and always remember to be a blessing!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/e4fbd23a

Happy Gaudete Sunday!

Choose Joy!

We are in the period of the last days in Advent 2023 and regardless of what we have been going through, we have a choice to find joy! Our model is St. John the Baptist who chose to live the joy of the Lord by preparing His way for us! However, will we follow John in his preparing the way of the Lord to everyone we encounter. The world still needs St. John the Baptist like individuals.

We find in St. John’s Gospel:

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.
John 1:6-7

Let us keep this testimony simple! St. John the Baptist was very much himself! He was “Wholly Holy”, he belonged to God, and he never wavered from surrender to God’s will for himself.

Can we use these last days before Christmas to give the true testimony that Jesus is the Lord of our lives? We do that by bringing joy to everyone we encounter!

Be Christmas Joy!

Pax. The Hermit of Peace.

https://gofund.me/e4fbd23a